Power Lunch: Big day in D.C. as Trump rolls out infrastructure plan, Senate debates immigration

The Florida House of Representatives deliberating the state budget (Phil Coale / Associated Press)

Greetings from Day 35 of the 60-day legislative session in Tallahassee! Policy subcommittees are now done over in the House, so if a bill hasn't gotten heard at this point, it's almost certainly deader than Dillinger.

That means, for example, a statewide fracking ban that will have its second Senate hearing this week is a nonstarter in the House.

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A statewide fracking ban that will have its second Senate hearing this week is a nonstarter in the House. (Keith Srakocic / AP)

For total legislative geeks only: I couldn't help but notice the unusual committee assignments for the House bill. See, usually, if a bill has an appropriations subcommittee to go through, that's its second committee stop before going to the full House Appropriations Committee or a full policy committee. The first committee assignment is usually about the policy, not the money. For example, here's the page for HB 1, the Hope Scholarship Fund (given the bill number, obviously a major priority in the House.) You can see it goes policy subcommittee (PreK-12 Innovation Subcommittee), then appropriations subcommittee (PreK-12 Appropriations), and finally a full committee stop before going on to the House floor. Here's another example, which I found by just clicking around bills until I found one with an Appropriations subcommittee stop. It works the same for just about every other bill.

But not the House fracking ban. That bill (HB 237) hits an Appropriations subcommittee first, and then goes on to a policy subcommittee. Why is that? Well, maybe it has something to do with the fact that the chairwoman of the policy subcommittee, state Rep. Holly Raschein, is an environmentally friendly Republican from the Florida Keys who would be under tremendous pressure to schedule a hearing on the bill. The chairman of the appropriations subcommittee in question, state Rep. Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, is … well, not those things.

Last week marked the halfway point in the legislative session, and the Orlando Sentinel's Gray Rohrer has a great where-are-we-now piece to memorialize the milestone. Essentially, little work has been accomplished, each chamber has not passed the other's priorities, and many of the fault lines are the same as they've been in previous years, when the Legislature failed to pass a budget on time in 2015 and 2017. On the other hand, the first half of the session sees a lot of bills getting committee hearings, bills that will come up for a vote in the second half of the session. So just because there's little to show for the first 30 days doesn't mean nothing will get accomplished in the next 30.

A House bill would restrict access to public voter information. (SAUL LOEB / AFP/Getty Images)

Political parties and PACs would still have access to the voter information, so if it passes, expect to continue to be unwantedly solicited.

Now, couple things. First, the Senate has a vastly different version of this bill that only restricts public access to the information of 16- and 17-year-olds who preregister to vote. Second, Stevenson's bill was already temporarily postponed in a committee stop, which is never a good sign for the continued life of a bill.

Florida Power & Light Co. received numerous phone calls urging for the air conditioning to be fixed at The Rehabilitation Center in Hollywood Hills after Hurricane Irma.

And closer to home, the Sun Sentinel's Megan O'Matz has gotten ahold of depositions, audio files and internal records from Florida Power and Light that show the utility company was warned time and again of an ongoing emergency at the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills, where 12 people died in the baking heat of a powerless nursing home. But those calls were either ignored or never quite made it through the chain of communication.

Trump called on Congress to produce a bill to generate $1.5 trillion for infrastructure. He offered no details of what exactly he wanted the infrastructure plan to be.

What's another $1.5 trillion at this point? It's a big day in Washington, D.C., as President Donald Trump, fresh from a budget deal that has deficit hawks pulling out their hair, is ready to announce details of his $1.5 trillion infrastructure plan. The Washington Post's John Wagner and Heather Long report that both Republicans and Democrats are already finding fault with the plan.

President Trump said for the first time that he will call for a path to citizenship for so-called Dreamers, many of whom now face deportation as a consequence of his past action. The change would be part of a package that includes funding for his proposed southern border wall. (Jan. 25, 2018)

Just talk, talk, talk till you lose your patience: Also coming up today, the U.S. Senate is set to begin an unusual, open-ended debate on immigration. But the Associated Press's Alan Fram reports that the big question for lawmakers is where President Donald Trump stands on the issue on any given day. U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., drew a comparison between "Tuesday Trump" and "Thursday Trump," which is "after the base gets to him."

Rob Porter, a top aide to President Trump, resigned after allegations that he had physically abused two ex-wives became public. White House chief of staff, John Kelly gave Porter strong backing, praising his "integrity and honor.” (Feb. 9, 2018)

Basher blowback: So, given all this budget and infrastructure stuff, President Donald Trump's Sunday political talk show surrogates had plenty to discuss, right? Well, unfortunately for them, they spend most of their time yesterday defending the president and Chief of Staff John Kelly from fallout over the resignation of White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter following allegations of abuse by two ex-wives, the Associated Press's Jonathan Lemire reports.

Back to the drawing board: Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee under U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff of California (pictured) are rewriting a response to a Republican memo that castigated the FBI for misuse of surveillance warrants, the Associated Press's Calvin Woodward reports. Their initial response, approved for declassification by the committee, was suppressed by President Donald Trump because it revealed investigatory sources and methods that had to be kept classified. The Democratic memo reportedly details how the Republican one cherry-picked information to present a one-sided case of FBI abuse.

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President Donald Trump is expected back at Mar-a-Lago this weekend. He has made 13 visits to the Palm Beach estate since becoming president.

He's back! So, when President Donald Trump has a massive infrastructure plan to sell, a White House scandal to defend, that Democratic memo breathing down his neck and response to his budget from Congress to deal with, where's he go? Oh, I think you know the answer — if you live in Palm Beach, expect traffic delays this weekend, the Sun Sentinel's Tonya Alanez reports. But before he gets to Palm Beach, Trump could be making a stop in Orlando, reports the Sun Sentinel's Skyler Swisher.

County officials hope new program will reduce jail costs by not locking up people who aren't a danger to the community.

When $50 turns into $5,000: Broward County is expanding its adult civil citation program, the Sun Sentinel's Larry Barszewski reports. And it's not just because of the sort of bleeding-heart stuff you expect out of Florida's most liberal county. In justifying civil citations for adults accused of some misdemeanors, including trespassing, loitering and theft of less than $300, the county pointed to the big cost of keeping small-time criminals behind bars.

Mostly, it's about the jailing of the homeless and the ridiculous costs associated with it. One man served 42 days in county jail after he was picked up sleeping on Fort Lauderdale beach because he couldn't afford the $25 to bond out.

His final fine after all that time: $50

Total cost to taxpayers to keep him housed in jail for 42 days: $5,880

On a side note, that comes to $140 a night, which is a night's stay at a mid-level hotel that I'm almost certain has better beds.

The last woman standing: If a conservative is, as William F. Buckley said, "a fellow who is standing athwart history yelling 'Stop!'" then Fort Lauderdale's a mighty weird place, in as much as new Fort Lauderdale City Commissioner Heather Moraitis is standing athwart the city yelling, "Go!" In this profile of Moraitis by the Sun Sentinel's Brittany Wallman, the commissioner is painted as a distinctly minority voice come the March elections, when she will be possibly the only commissioner in favor of The Wave streetcar project, the condo developments on public land at Bahia Mar and against a temporary building moratorium. The Wave will be an especially lonely position, as most of the candidates running for mayor and city commissioner have expressed antipathy. Moraitis ran unopposed and so is already headed to the commission.

≥280 CHARACTER HOT TAKE: The problem with Rep. Ross' tweet is that the federal budget deficit in FY 2015 was $439 billion and in FY 2016 was $587 billion, the first time it increased since 2009. Here is a Reuters story explaining all of that. The budget deficit just approved by Congress is likely at $1.2 trillion, per that AP story Ross quoted — more than both 2015 and 2016 combined. So … who's moving the goalposts again?